Documents of the Right Word

‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ was busy with the preparations for the funeral,
the three Khalîfas convened most of the Sahâba under the
brushwood shelter called Benî Sa’îda. They made Abû Bekr the
Khalîfa. Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ heard about this. Yet he thought it
would be futile to fight because he had few men and he did not
want the good people to die, and for some other good reasons
unknown to us. This does not show that Abû Bekr was right. For
one thing, Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ was very strong and brave, yet he
and Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ and many Sahâba
migrated from Mekka to Medina without making any war. They
considered it inappropriate to fight at that time. As they and
fifteen hundred Sahâbîs were on their way to Mekka in the sixth
year of the Hegira, they made peace at a place called Hudaybiya
and returned (to Medina). Since it was permissible for Rasûlullah
and Alî and the other Sahâba not to fight at those places, it should
certainly have been permissible for Alî not to make war by
himself. As the fact that war was not made at those places would
not show that the disbelievers of Qoureish were right, so Alî’s not
making war would certainly not show that Abû Bekr was right.
Likewise, Pharaoh maintained his claim to be a god for four
hundred years in Egypt. Also, other kings such as Sheddâd and
Nimrod continued this corrupt claim for many years. Allâhu ta’âlâ,
the Almighty as He is, did not kill them. Even Allâhu ta’âlâ does
not hurry to avenge on His enemies; why should it not be
permissible, then, for a born slave not to oppose his enemy? The
Emîr’s acquiescence to their caliphate was intended to act toward
the situation. It was not a willing acceptance.”
Our answer to this will be: According to the ’Ulamâ of
Mâwarâ’un-nehr, Alî’s not fighting Abû Bekr ‘radiy-Allâhu
anhumâ’, and obeying him, instead, shows that he (Abû Bekr) was
the rightly-guided Khalîfa. And this fact cannot be refuted or
denied by making a comparison of it to Rasûlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu
alaihi wa sallam’ not fighting against the disbelievers of Qoureish
or Allâhu ta’âlâ’s delaying the killing of His enemies such as
Pharaoh, Sheddâd and Nimrod. These examples given in the
booklet confute its own argument. For Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu
alaihi wa sallam’ and Allâhu ta’âlâ always reproved these enemies
of theirs. They stated that those enemies were always evil and
base. How can those people be examples for this case? Where is
the similarity? Thwarted by the multitude of the reports stating
that Alî accepted Abû Bekr’s caliphate and obeyed him ‘radiy-
Allâhu anhumâ’, and seeing that it would be futile to deny this fact,
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